Quote from: aspp on February 04, 2013, 12:42

This again! A few points which come up every time this comes up which is most months ...

• What country is your co-op going to be based given that all different countries have all different rules around the way in which co-ops can be formed or incorporate including many different rules about stock holdings ? Different rules about what even is a co-op.
• Most co-ops involve profit sharing.
• RF stock is about having thousands of contributors. Thousands of people could never practically reach agreement over the sort of issues which running a co-op would demand. Photographers are notoriously bad at getting along with each other in business.
• A manageably sized co-op would need to make distribution deals with Getty. Boutique collections can be great. They already exist.
• Huge resources are needed (millions $) annually to operate the sort of site which would get traffic adequate to compete as a standalone RF site. Even a small site is going to need to spend a significant amount on international accounting, legal fees, security, merchant services etc
• Most people would rather take photos than run an agency. It would be like wanting to be a farmer and ending up running a supermarket.

The change, if change comes which I doubt, will be about smaller groups working together by using common platforms to present a united front end. Some have postulated an Open Source platform. I doubt that the economics make this a viable Open Source project.

The co-op can be anywhere... Panama or some other tax haven, since it really doesn't have to be anywhere...

As for shear numbers... if a democracy like the USA can work then I am sure we can work with the numbers needed here.  The trick would be to hire professionals to run the orgainization, not to run it ourselves... we set the guidelines and set it in motion.

And as for farmers running a supermarket...I am looking at farmers co-ops as an example... some of the bigfood distrubtion companies are farmers co-ops.

Since it has been suggested before, then it might be really worth exploring.  Otherwise we will be at the mercy of the Gettys of the world.

I don't think we should be thinking about the numbers or what Getty think about this.  What matters is that lots of buyers are made aware of how little Getty/istock respect us, how low our commissions are and that non-exclusives have much bigger portfolios on other sites.  Hopefully more and more of them will at least get a second account and only use istock to buy from exclusives.

There's a lot more we can do but I think we should wait and see what effect D-Day has had before planning another group action.  It was great to take part in this and see so many joining in.  It's made me think that perhaps we do have some power.

Istock have posted an update about google & microsft deals here: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=351105&page=1

Quote

Google Drive

Once again, we'd like to thank you for your continued patience. To reiterate from previous posts, royalties have been paid in connection with the Google Drive usage based on all consideration received by Getty Images under the licensing agreement. We understand your concerns relating to the deal and we are making progress in a productive dialogue with Google about these concerns and potential solutions. As many of you have pointed out Google is a big company, much bigger than Getty Images, and coordinating across the teams there that will help with any modifications is taking longer than we might have hoped, but things are still proceeding.

Microsoft

Based on your concerns, we have also been working with Microsoft over the past several months to bring resolution to the license that was set up in 2007. Over the next 60 days all imagery licensed as part of this promotional arrangement will be removed from the online version of Microsoft Office. Keep in mind though that all licenses that were granted by Microsoft prior to the removal of the content remain valid licenses under the terms of the Microsoft EULA. As previously explained, if you see instances where your content is being used without or contrary to the iStock or Microsoft license terms, please let us know at [email protected].

Our contributors are extremely important to us. We take very seriously our obligation of representing your creative work. While every deal is not perfect out of the gate, we strive to license your content in a financially beneficial manner and believe we largely succeed in this effort across the millions of customers and transactions completed each year. We are also working hard to make your content available to new customers in new uses through investments in marketing, technology and new business models. At the same time, we are investing heavily in technology, education and industry efforts to protect your copyrighted work and license your content responsibly.

Thanks again for your time, patience and constructive feedback.